Jürgen Klinsmann feels misunderstood after criticism of his statements about Iran's playing style.
“My comments on the Wales vs Iran game were purely football related.
Unfortunately, they were taken out of the footballing context," wrote the former national soccer coach on Twitter on Monday.
“I have many Iranian friends and have always been full of compliments about their countrymen, culture and history.
I wish them all the best for the tournament.”
The 1990 world champion had criticized Iran's allegedly unclean style of play in the 2-0 win against Wales on the BBC.
“It's part of their culture and how they play, they've edited the referee perfectly.
The bench kept jumping up and complaining to the linesman and fourth official.
They're in your head all the time," said Klinsmann.
"It's their culture.
They make you lose focus.”
Iran's coach Carlos Queiroz had sharply criticized Klinsmann's statements and called for his resignation from the FIFA Technical Study Group, of which Klinsmann is a member.
With this condition, Queiroz invited Klinsmann to visit the quarter of Iran and learn about Iranian culture and people from the players.
The Iranian association also linked its criticism of Klinsmann's statements with an invitation to a lecture "about the thousand-year-old Persian culture and the values of football and sport".
Before Iran's third and last group game on Tuesday (8 p.m. CET in the FAZ live ticker for the soccer World Cup, on ARD and on MagentaTV) against the United States, coach Queiroz's team has good prospects of progressing.
After beating Wales last Friday (2-0) with two added-time goals, Iran are currently second in Group B on three points, one point behind the leaders England, who meet Wales in the parallel game on Tuesday (20:00 CET). CET in the FAZ live ticker for the World Cup and on MagentaTV).